Tips for Selling Your Website After Ending Your Business

There are a lot of issues that you have to think about when running a business. One of the biggest factors is knowing how to handle managing your website.

There might be a point when you decide to end your business. Your first inclination might be to just let your website expire. But your site might be incredibly valuable. Your best option might be to sell it to another business owner or aspiring blogger. You might make even more money if you are selling an ecommerce site.

Selling a website, like selling real estate or a business, is not as simple as it sounds. But it also doesn’t have to be as nerve-wracking as it usually is for some. When making any sale, there are many things to consider, whether it’s a home or a website. With that in mind, here are five tips on how to sell your virtual site when you decide to discontinue your business.

1. Site or Domain Name

Before you decide to sell your website, you want to seriously consider whether you stand to benefit more from selling the website itself or the domain name. In some cases, the domain name is more valuable than the website. This can be especially true if you have done a good job marketing your business to boost your brand.

Some domain names have sold for millions of dollars. The Business.com website, for instance, was bought for $7.5 million in 1999 and went on to sell for $350 million eight years later. Today, there are several online tools to check how much a domain name is worth.
Knowing the value of the domain name alone doesn’t help if you’re trying to decide whether to sell the whole website or just the domain name. You’ll also need to know the website’s value and figure out which is more valuable. Work with a domain brokerage to help you get the most value out of your domain.

2. Determine the Value of the Website

There are several ways to determine the value of a website. The easiest—though not the most accurate—is the Earnings Multiplier Calculation. It is based on the assumption that the average website is worth 24 to 36 times its monthly revenue. If, for example, your website brings in $1,000 per month, you could sell for anything between $24,000 and $36,000.

However, this method doesn’t consider the various features that collectively determine the actual value of your site. Instead, it’s simply an estimation of your website’s potential worth.

Another way to determine the value of a website is to look at revenue. While various websites use different forms of monetization, the most common is AdSense. Some websites rely entirely on AdSense, which makes it easier to determine their value. One tool you can use is the SEMrush AdSense Benchmark Tool. By simply entering and searching for your domain, you can find an approximate monthly revenue. This figure can be used with a multiplier to estimate your site’s value.

The issue with using a multiplier is that it does consider critical factors like the net profit and business structure. Also, bear in mind that subscription-based websites usually sell for more than content-based websites because of their potential for recurring payments.

Lastly, consider updating your website before you put it on the market. In the same way, you might paint your home and make minor renovations to a property before you sell it, you should work with a web design company to help make your site more attractive to prospective buyers. Chances are, you will get a return on your investment.

3. Look at Successful Website Sales

Before listing your website for sale, it would help to look into successful website sales to see what you can learn from them. Such information can be found on auction sites like Flippa. Carefully examine what marketing strategies were used and what features of the website were highlighted before the sale. This will be useful in helping you formulate a plan for your sale and ensure you don’t get ripped off when you sell your website. It can also be useful in optimizing existing ads or marketing plans.

4. Make your website as valuable as possible

According to SEMrush, the majority of websites sell for less than $100,000. That is by no means a paltry sum, and selling a website for even a fraction of that amount will require some work. You need to make your site as valuable as possible. Factors such as affiliate links, ad placement, level of conversion, the effectiveness of your call to action and the general UI/UX design of the site can have a significant bearing on whether people will be willing to pay for it, and most importantly, how much. It is important to remember that the ultimate value is how much a prospective client is willing to pay for it in its current state.

5. Auction or Place Your Website on a Marketplace for Sale

Having made your website as valuable as possible and figured out the best way to market your website through careful research of successful sales, you now have to find a market for it. There are several website auction platforms. Some popular ones are FE International, Empire Flippers and Flippa. Of course, which site to use depends on how much your website is worth.

According to Forbes, FE International is your go-to when looking to sell a website valued at over $100,000. They have commissions averaging 15% and take care of all legalities, marketing and liaising with prospective clients. For Websites worth between $10,000 and $100,000, Empire Flippers are the Forbes-recommended choice. They, too, take care of most of the selling process for a commission of 15 to 20%. For sites worth less than $10,000, auctioning on Flippa is an option. However, users of this auctioning platform will have to be wary of scammers.

Website the Right Way After Ending Your Business

There are a lot of issues to consider when it comes to ending your business. One of the biggest decisions that you will need to make is what to do with your website. You will want to consider selling it, which is a good way to make extra money. You just to go through it the right way. The guidelines above should help.